New York City mayoral candidates rallied with supporters to out the electorate on the last day of early voting Sunday, Oct. 31 ahead of the general election Tuesday, Nov. 2.
“Nov. 3 is not the time to say what we did right or wrong, it’s Nov. 2,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee, at a Get Out the Vote rally to reelect Council Member and Council Speaker hopeful Justin Brannan in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. “We need to complete Nov. 2 tired, exhausted, our shoes worn out, knocked on doors, convinced people to vote to get this message out.”
Adams joined the rally for Brannan, who is running one of the city’s few competitive local races for Brooklyn’s southwest tip against Republican Brian Fox, and was joined by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and local state senator Andrew Gounardes.
The Brooklyn borough president is the favorite to take the top job in a heavily-Democratic-leaning city and he campaigned across the boroughs Sunday, attending a rally against anti-Dominican discrimination in Washington Heights in the afternoon, followed by Get Out the Vote events in Carl Schurz Park on the Upper East Side and Parkchester, The Bronx.
Across the Verrazzano Bridge on Staten Island, Republican mayoral hopeful Curtis Sliwa delivered a fiery speech to supporters, taking aim at Mayor Bill de Blasio’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for essential workers and slamming Adams as de Blasio’s “teammate in destroying New York City.”
“A former cop, look at what he’s doing to his fellow police officers,” said Sliwa, referencing Adams’ tenure as an NYPD captain prior to his political career. “If the good people of New York City – who don’t want another four years of Bill de Blasio — decide not to vote for Eric Adams, on Jan. 2 I will roll back all these mandates.”
Polls opened for early voting last week on Saturday, Oct. 23 through Sunday, Oct. 31, and 134,946 New Yorkers cast their ballot as of Saturday evening, Oct. 30, according to the city’s Board of Elections. That’s below the June primary pace, when 155,630 voters did their civic duty during eight of the nine early voting days.
Day 8 complete!
•Manhattan – 38,798
•Bronx – 16,108
•Brooklyn – 36,644
•Queens – 28,913
•Staten Island – 14,483
Total Number of Early Voting Check-Ins 134,946
*Unofficial and Cumulative as of close of polls— NYC Board of Elections (@BOENYC) October 30, 2021
Both of those numbers are a mere fraction of early voting numbers during the 2020 Presidential Election when almost 980,000 came out to vote by Day 8.
New Yorkers can still vote on Election Day Tuesday, or send in an absentee ballot if they requested on, which must be postmarked no later than Nov. 2.
Sliwa, who is best known for founding the Guardian Angels vigilante group in the 1970s, vowed to rehire all city workers who lost their jobs for refusing the jab.
“These are all the essential workers who crawled into the belly of the beast when the lockdown and pandemic came,” said the candidate still wearing his arm in a sling after being hit by a yellow taxi cab driver Friday.
To support police and firefighters who remain opposed to getting a life-saving COVID-19 shot, Sliwa planned to visit Firehouse Engine 54 in Midtown, and the Midtown South Precinct of the NYPD.
Sliwa also planned to cap off his day at the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, according to his campaign schedule.
City workers — in particular FDNY, DSNY, and NYPD — rallied repeatedly last week against the mandate, which requires them to get at least one dose by Nov. 1.
De Blasio has not relented and rates for at least one dose have shot up across the board since Oct. 19, with firefighters going from 58%-73% on Oct. 30, DSNY up from 62%–79%, and NYPD going from 70-84%, according to the latest figures released by City Hall.
